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Day 1:
Tom Meleo Weekend Tour
Lindsey, Ca.
Fall 2006
(includes pictures from latest tour, 2009) |
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This weekend tour was
coordinated by the Foothill Region and featured a tour of Tom Meleo's
car collection. Tom's car collection contains many Chevrolet's
that he, and his father, have collected over many years. The
Meleo's have orange groves in the San Jauquin Valley near Lindsey, Ca.
A recently constructed facility at one of their orange groves houses
many of their cars. This facility is very climate and dust
controlled since this location does experience many types of weather
changes.
The Chevy collection at the
new facility contains restored and original cars with newest about 1950.
Other locations at the Meleo's have additional Chevy's and other brands.
Tom also has a restoration facility at this location.
Tom Meleo, one of the original founding
members of our VCCA has been collecting (along with his father,
Vic) automobiles for many-many years.
Vic began operating a service station (now known as a gas
station, filling station, convenience store, etc.) in about 1937
in Los Angeles. He
continued with this operation till about 1941 and then opened a
repair facility in another individuals building.
Recently, within Tom & Vic’s collection, they had
acquired enough service station memorabilia that they decided to
recreate Vic’s old station and also restore his original ’37
pickup-Tow truck. Tom
also placed a new building on his property which houses his
early-Chev collection.
The newest car in the collection is a 1954 Chev hardtop.
This new building is very climate and filtered air
controlled.
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Tom Meleo is seen above greeting
everyone to his new facility. Spotless and clean is the
byword. |
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Above (2009 tour) Tom has added a
Chevrolet Sign to the building. |
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Vic’s Garage, 7901 S. Avalon
Blvd. Call
PL-9469 for service. Note the opening height is large to
house the gravity flow fuel pump with the Hancock
signage on top.
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 Snapshot
of the original truck with Tom's dad and his brother.
The truck is seen in the above
picture in front of the service station which closely
approximates Tom's dad's service station from the late 30's.
Inside the station is a good collection of service station
memorabilia collected over the years.
B&W inset picture of the
original family photo.
Note: The address on the truck is 1161 E. Pico
Blv., VA1850.
I don’t know the story behind
the time element of the photo and the current
restoration. The
Pico location is just south of Downtown LA (north of
I-10) while the Avalon location is south of Florence on
Avalon.
Interesting?
Tom's dad still lives with him in
the house surrounded by an orange grove. The home was
originally built by the family. |
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